Comparison

Calca vs Obsidian Web Clipper

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Calca

This app is an advanced symbolic calculator and text editor. It solves equations, simplifies expressions, and allows you to explain your work alongside calculations. Calculations update instantly as you type, and all data is stored as plain text for easy sharing and device syncing.

Highlights
  • Symbolic calculation
  • Equation solving
  • Expression simplification
  • Markdown text editor
  • Real-time updates
  • Unit and currency conversion
  • Matrix operations
Features
Read full description

Calca is a powerful symbolic calculator that gives you instant answers as you type. It solves equations and simplifies complex expressions - it's a computer algebra system in your pocket! It's also a rich Markdown text editor so that you can explain your ideas alongside your calculations. Calca is perfect for professionals and students - anyone who works with numbers and equations. Variables and functions can be created with only a few keystrokes and can be manipulated with a rich library of operators and functions. Calca updates as you type - just like a spreadsheet. You can declare variables, edit their values and watch everything update before your eyes. Since everything is calculated on the device - no network needed - you get answers instantaneously. All calculations are stored as plain text so you can easily share them with other editors and move them from device to device. Calca has been designed to work with iCloud documents so all your devices can access your calculations - you'll always have the latest files ready for viewing and editing. Calca comes with a suite of examples to help you get started covering topics from home mortgages to kinetics. All these examples are fully explained within Calca itself. Are you still using a desktop calculator? Are you using the calculator with the giant buttons that came with your OS? Computers are much more capable than doing simple one-line arithmetic - put your machine to work with Calca! Calculation Features: • Variables `x = 42` • Functions `f(c) = 9/5*c + 32` and even recursive functions • Units `42 mph in kmph` and currency `¥599 in $` • Solves equations (`x + 2x + 4x = 42`, what is x?) • Matrices with inverses so you can solve linear equations • Sum, prod, map, and reduce operations on lists, matrices, and ranges • Trigonometry and complex numbers • Derivatives of functions • Logic operations and if statements • Binary math (& and |) and support for binary and hex number (`0xA9` and `0b1010`) • Keeps track of units (m, s, m/s, m/s^2, etc.) so you can verify your equations as you compute Please visit http://calca.io to see lots of examples. Thank you for looking!

About

Obsidian Web Clipper

Save web content directly to your personal knowledge base for offline access. Organize research, recipes, articles, and more with customizable templates and smart triggers. Your data is private, secure, and stored locally in durable Markdown format.

Highlights
  • Clip any web content
  • Select page content or extract main article
  • Customizable templates for metadata
  • Smart triggers for automatic template application
  • Seamless integration with Obsidian vault
  • Save as local Markdown files
  • Offline access to clipped content
Features
Read full description

Bring the web to your personal knowledge base. Save content to your Obsidian vault so you always have access to it, even offline. Obsidian is secure, private, and designed around durable open formats that allows you to preserve your data for the long term. Whether you're researching for a project, saving recipes, bookmarking travel destinations, or collecting inspiring articles, the Obsidian Web Clipper helps you organize your ideas. - Clip anything: From news articles and blog posts to recipes, product pages, and research papers — if it's on the web, you can save it. - Select page content: Clip entire pages, selected text, or let the clipper intelligently extract just the main content. - Customizable templates: Create tailored templates to automatically extract metadata from web pages. Perfect for academics, movie buffs, book lovers, or anyone who wants structured notes. - Smart triggers: Set up rules to automatically apply the right template based on the website you're clipping from. - Seamless integration: all your clips flow directly into Obsidian, in the vault and folder of your choice. As with everything Obsidian, Web Clipper is designed to protect your privacy, and give you control over your data. - No lock-in: All your clips are saved in clean, durable, portable Markdown files — no proprietary formats. - Offline access: your saved clips are saved locally, and always at your fingertips, with or without an internet connection. - 100% private: all your clipped content is stored locally in your Obsidian vault. Your thoughts are yours. Obsidian helps you create connections and links between your notes so you can organize your thoughts. You can create links between everything — ideas, articles, lists, locations, books — anything you can put in a note, you can link to other notes.

Screenshots

Calca4 screens
Obsidian Web Clipper1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Obsidian Web Clipper at Free against Calca's $9.99. Obsidian Web Clipper also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and update cadence (every 9 days vs every 5 months). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Obsidian Web Clipper is free to download; Calca costs $9.99 up front. Calca sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Obsidian Web Clipper asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Calca against 4.4 for Obsidian Web Clipper. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 153 and 98 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 76% of Calca's written reviews are positive against 69% of Obsidian Web Clipper's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Calca ships an update every 5 months, Obsidian Web Clipper every 9 days. Both last shipped on September 25, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Calca versus Obsidian Web Clipper: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCalcaObsidian Web Clipper
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.5 (153 ratings) — better4.4 (98 ratings)
Positive reviews76.5% of reviews — better68.8% of reviews
Number of ratings153 — better98
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsEvery 9 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size78 MB28 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKrueger Systems, Inc.Dynalist Inc.

Customer experience

Calca

All ratings153 ratings
Positive87.6%
Neutral4.6%
Negative7.8%
Written reviews170 reviews
Positive76.5%
Neutral7.1%
Negative16.5%

Obsidian Web Clipper

All ratings98 ratings
Positive82.7%
Neutral4.1%
Negative13.3%
Written reviews125 reviews
Positive68.8%
Neutral9.6%
Negative21.6%

User reviews

Calca

From 153 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💡 Unique blend of text editor and calculator
  • 📝 Markdown support for documentation
  • 🔄 Dynamic recalculation of all values
  • ⚙️ Powerful mathematical and algebraic capabilities
  • 📊 Unit conversion and unit-aware calculations

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Magic Keyboard input bugs on iPad
  • ⚠️ Appears abandoned or poorly maintained
  • 🐛 Text selection issues with external keyboards
  • 📱 iPad landscape mode problems
  • 🐛 Cursor jumping and screen jumping during editing

Obsidian Web Clipper

From 98 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fantastic web clipper
  • 👍 Seamless and light on the system
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 👍 Powerful and customizable
  • 🚀 Works flawlessly

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Does not work on Mac
  • 🐛 Takes over Obsidian startup on iOS
  • 🐛 Extension not showing on macOS
  • 🐛 Complicated to use, not working on important websites

Bugs and requests

Calca

Reported bugs

12 issues
  • Magic Keyboard causes number input to overwrite instead of append
  • Text selection before numbers triggers increment/decrement instead of selecting
  • Cursor jumps forward and backward with external keyboards
  • iPad Pro keyboard truncation in portrait mode
  • Arrow key (=>) doesn't work in landscape mode
Show 7 more
  • App crashes on startup on some devices
  • File saving is temperamental and causes data loss
  • Folders don't persist unless calculations created within them
  • Large number calculations lose precision (10^100 + 1 - 10^100 returns 0 instead of 1)
  • Keyboard focus issues on iPad with Magic Keyboard
  • iOS 13+ button adaptation issues
  • Spinning beach ball on very large calculations

Requested features

15 requests
  • Files app and document browser integration
  • Dropbox and Google Drive support
  • Date calculation functionality
  • Looping and iteration support
  • User-defined function storage in separate files
Show 10 more
  • Temperature unit support (Celsius, Fahrenheit)
  • Logarithmic and non-proportional unit definitions
  • Multiple parametric plots simultaneously
  • Landscape mode optimization
  • Tabular data and multi-row markdown table support
  • Dark mode (now implemented)
  • Subscription model option for ongoing development
  • Decimal place formatting control
  • Charting and financial functions
  • Better document management interface

Obsidian Web Clipper

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Defining a file path with a subfolder does not work
  • Doesn't wait for page load, resulting in missing content

Requested features

2 requests
  • Immersive reading experience with ability to hide top and bottom bars
  • Autofill possible vaults for clipping

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Calca

One-time2
  • 6-Month Optional Patronage$4.99
  • 12-Month Optional Patronage$7.99
None

Obsidian Web Clipper

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Calca free?
Calca costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Obsidian Web Clipper free?
Obsidian Web Clipper is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Calca or Obsidian Web Clipper?
Calca is rated higher. Calca averages 4.5 out of 5 from 153 ratings, while Obsidian Web Clipper averages 4.4 from 98 ratings.
Do Calca or Obsidian Web Clipper have ads?
Neither Calca nor Obsidian Web Clipper shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Calca or Obsidian Web Clipper?
Calca ships an update every 5 months, and Obsidian Web Clipper every 9 days. Most recently, Calca was updated on September 25, 2026 and Obsidian Web Clipper on September 25, 2026.

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